On 19 June, new data, from an independent study conducted by Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates (O&O), revealed that people who use Yle’s online news were 6.7 percentage points more likely to also use commercial publishers’ online news than those who do not. Across every metric studied, including share of performance, page views and visits, there was no negative impact of Yle’s online news on commercial publishers’ online news. In fact, by share of page views, a 1% rise in Yle’s share is linked to a 0.19% rise in traditional publishers’ news share.

The findings sit against a backdrop of news fatigue. The 2025 Reuters Digital News Report and aggregate consumption data for 2022 to 2025 records that around 40% of people globally now avoid the news at least some of the time, near a record high, with feeling worn out by the volume of news among the leading reasons. This points to societal pressures, not public service media, as the force drawing audiences away.

"Another study, the same finding. Public service media online news does not crowd out commercial publishers; it grows the audience we all share. We have known this for a long time. European broadcasters and publishers should be urgently working together to ensure European media thrives in the AI age - brand attribution, accuracy and respect for our copyright are the key battles now," said Richard Burnley, Director of Legal & Policy, EBU.

The study follows the O&O’s June 2025 pan-European research, which linked doubling public service media online news output to a 28% rise in commercial news revenues, and doubling weekly reach to a 43% rise in reach. An April 2026 Lithuanian study linked a 1% rise in LRT page views to a 0.70% rise in commercial page views. Public and private news media grow together.

Read the full report.